Megatron redemption fics are always like "damn I am so sad I murdered all those people" and starscream redemption fics are always like "starscream have you ever considered you have no friends and everyone is bad to you because you're a miserable cunt"
One of my biggest gripes is how often people portray megatron as this unending well of regret and charisma. Like even when theyre describing him ordering torture and genocide or abusing someone or even inserting new horrors into the text like him being a rapist, the focus is the tragedy of it. It's sad that the innocent person he used to be doesn't exist anymore. Luckily he is still OK to be around despite the past horrors he committed though, so it gets to be past.
The idea that he might have any of the traits people usually assign to starscream—manipulative, sadistic, petty, selfish, power-hungry, explosively angry and violent, vain, egotistical, unempathetic, vindictive, tyrannical, stubborn, cruel, etc etc etc—is either far from people's minds or only comes up to show how much better those traits look on him compared to someone like starscream. Hes just so cool and awesome and besides, hes better now. He doesn't have to deeply work on himself as a person so much as atone for the harm. They arent linked. He doesnt have to be mocked and browbeaten into submission to be better. He was always cool and awesome, it was just the crimes. Now that hes not doing all that, we can kick it with megatron.
Someone like starscream is written like if sandpaper were a person and capable of malice. Hes not just bad because he hurt people, hes rotten from the inside out. He can never have a normal life until he radically changes himself, because everyone hates being around him, for many of the exact same traits megatron gets a pass on. And for this, he needs a sound bullying and shunning usually. At least a good lecture. Maybe someone oughta even punch him one. Because starscream is immature, a little brat. Hes not a fully formed adult with REAL authority or emotional intelligence like megatron. He needs discipline, or he'll never learn.
